pillage
Americanverb (used with object)
-
pillages,
present (3rd person singular)
-
pillaged,
past participle, past
-
pillaging
present participle
verb (used without object)
-
pillages,
present (3rd person singular)
-
pillaged,
past participle, past
-
pillaging
present participle
noun
-
the act of plundering, especially in war.
- Synonyms:
- spoliation, depredation, rapine
-
booty or spoil.
- Synonyms:
- plunder
verb
noun
-
the act of pillaging
-
something obtained by pillaging; booty
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
pillagesimple
-
pillagessimple
-
have pillagedperfect
-
has pillagedperfect
-
am pillagingprogressive
-
are pillagingprogressive
-
is pillagingprogressive
-
have been pillagingperfect progressive
-
has been pillagingperfect progressive
Past
-
pillagedsimple
-
had pillagedperfect
-
was pillagingprogressive
-
were pillagingprogressive
-
had been pillagingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of pillage
1350–1400; Middle English pilage ( see pill 3, -age), modeled on Middle French pillage (derivative of piller to pillage, originally, to abuse, mistreat, tear, of uncertain origin)
Explanation
To pillage is a term of war that means to take everything of value from a place that you've conquered, but these days, pillage can be used to talk about anyone who takes what's not theirs. It wasn't enough just to win a battle. A conquering army had to pillage entire cities, taking everything of value that wasn't nailed down. Recently, several European families have won cases in international courts against museums displaying art that was looted by the Nazis during World War II. These families claim that the art was pillaged during the war and that, rather than being displayed on museum walls, it should be returned to its rightful owners.
Vocabulary lists containing pillage
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Words Every Pirate Should Know
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Born a Crime
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
In the UK the practice reportedly links back to the Viking pillage of Lindisfarne.
From BBC ● Mar. 6, 2026
That was Hirsh Jain’s intention, the filing said, citing an alleged text to Radha Jain in which he said: “I’m down to pillage the best devs at Palantir when they’re at their maximum richness.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 11, 2025
“We’re not going to sell to someone who is going to basically pillage the company,” she said.
From Seattle Times ● Jun. 5, 2024
In theory, pirates plunder and pillage outside the law, while corsairs were privateers regulated by authorities.
From National Geographic ● Jan. 11, 2024
In days gone by, these men held Hypereia, a country of wide dancing grounds, but near them were overbearing Kyklopes, whose power could not be turned from pillage.
From "The Odyssey" by Homer
It has now been a decade since that distinctive riff on “The Shining,” and for Byrne’s third feature, he once again pillages from indelible sources.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 6, 2025
Around the ninth century, her remains were moved to the northern town of Downpatrick in hopes of avoiding the pillages of Vikings and others.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 26, 2024
The Empress controls the universe, and pillages the past for technologies to keep the universe safe from an alien species known as The Bleed.
From The Verge ● Jun. 15, 2019
She pillages but also suavely synthesizes art’s eternal images of women from the Renaissance to Futurism and beyond: from Madonnas, angels and queens to warriors.
From New York Times ● Jan. 26, 2017
In twenty years, thanks to that Code, which pillages fortunes under what they call 'Successions,' an heiress worth a million will be as rare as generosity in a money-lender.
From Modeste Mignon by Honoré de Balzac
Third, it was safer to have capital loaned out than in reserve, where it could be pillaged.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 5, 2026
"Do not let your lands be pillaged... or your homes given over to the invaders," he said on social media.
From Barron's ● Dec. 26, 2025
They’ve pillaged and rampaged their way there, destroying everyone in their path while scoring 15 times in three playoff wins in which they’ve never trailed.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 24, 2024
Thought to be almost 500 years old, this giant tree has weathered many storms and survived being pillaged for firewood in 1940s post-war Britain.
From BBC ● Mar. 20, 2024
We do know that afterward, the woman staring out of the painting—Lisa Gherardini—will watch as the city around her is invaded and pillaged.
From "The Mona Lisa Vanishes" by Nicholas Day
Another, less grand perhaps, is the closeness of a community like Fairfax, where people volunteer their time to keep their facility open, while serial fraudsters are indicted for pillaging hospitals and overbilling the government.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 23, 2025
Throughout, “Pirates Wanted” explores how to navigate complicated family drama and romantic relationships when value systems — you know, looting and pillaging versus not — don’t align.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 19, 2025
It was a far cry from the claims of "looting and pillaging".
From BBC ● Apr. 27, 2025
Once upon a time, on June 15, 1859, 27-year-old Lyman Cutlar, a squatter on the island, discovered a pig pillaging his potatoes.
From Seattle Times ● May 16, 2024
Stravinsky had mischievous fun pillaging music’s dusty back catalogue with the ballet Pulcinella for Diaghilev's Ballets Russes company in 1920.
From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
